It was a cold war. The 3-meter area between the two women felt like a demilitarized zone. The club members seemed to have noticed this as well, seeing as to how they weren’t questioning their relationship. Maru gave Suyeon and Miso a glance before finally standing up.

“Didn’t you say you had work, senior?”

Miso stood up with a bit of a glare.

“Fine, I’ll leave.”

The club members sent her off as Miso opened the door, Maru stepped out to give her a farewell as well.

“Thank you for coming.”

“Oh, that's why you gestured for me to leave?”

“We can’t just sit around playing forever.”

Miso stepped down the stairs with a shake of her head, Maru tried to go back to the classroom but stopped after seeing Miso wave him towards her. He followed the woman downstairs. After leaving the building through the left gates of the building, they reached Miso’s car parked nearby. Miso opened the shotgun seat to take out a small envelope.

“Come see us during the weekend. There are six tickets. It should be a good reference for the freshmen.”

Maru tried taking out the tickets, it was a play titled ‘Dreams of Lottery’, running at ‘Sky Cinema’.

“So this is the thing you prepared with Instructor Ganghwan?”

“That’s right.”

“It’s not ‘Statute of Limitations’, huh?”

“Eh? How did you know about that one?”

“Do you remember how we put a chair in your car last year during the competition?”

“...No.”

“In any case, I saw the script in the seats back then.”

“Nice memory.”

Maru thought for sure that she’d work on ‘Statute of Limitations’ when she told him that she was working with Ganghwan, mostly because Ganghwan always liked to work on plays that depicted humanity’s dark side. The man did say that that was the genre he enjoyed the most, to think the play would be something so bright-sounding instead…

“You seem to be wondering why the title isn’t befitting of Ganghwan’s personality.”

“Was it that obvious?”

“A little. Well, there are adult problems. This play is produced by Ganghwan, but the investments came from somewhere else. Plus, it’s not like the guy hates romantic comedies. He just has a strange enjoyment towards making people frown, it’s honestly a bit troublesome how attached he is to it.”

“So the ‘Statute of Limitations’ is...”

“The play we’re doing after this one, he was the one who wrote the script as well. Geunsoo and I were recruited by force and I think you’re also being considered as well?”

“Me?”

“I thought he told you. Not yet?”

Come to think of it, Ganghwan did mention something about a play. Maru paid him little mind at the time, but this must be it.

“He really likes trying new things, doesn’t he?”

“We suffer because of it, even Mr. Junmin says he’s annoying to deal with.”

Miso got in the car with a smile, Maru tapped on the window lightly.

“Can you get us one more ticket, while you’re at it?”

“That woman has a lot of money, she can buy it for herself. Don’t you dare let her buy it at anything but the full price.”

“You’re surprisingly petty.”

“You ever tried being run over by a car?”

“...Goodbye.”

Maru bowed after taking a few steps backwards. After watching the woman’s car slide through the front gates, he returned back to the classroom.

“We’re pretty much done choosing roles, senior.”

They must’ve finished while he was away, he could see the roles and names written out on the blackboard.

“Park Daemyung, cop. Kang Dowook, delinquent. Jeon Aram, scammer. Ahn Bangjoo, drunk customer. Lee Jiyoon… a hostess?”

Maru had to pause for a second at that last part. They decided to take whatever roles they wanted since the gender for these didn’t matter in this play, Maru got the role he wanted almost immediately because no one wanted it. Indeed, that was why the top of the board had ‘Han Maru - Businessman’ written on it. The rest of the club decided to choose the roles amongst each other, but the role Jiyoon took really took Maru by surprise.

“A hostess? Really?”

“Yes.”

Jiyoon nodded confidently.

“She said she wanted the role almost immediately after you left. I’ve never seen her so confident about her decision,” Aram said.

Jiyoon told the girl off quietly from the side.

“I want to try it.”

She looked very resolved in her decision. Was it thanks to Daemyung? Well, Maru had no reason to stop her.

“Good luck.”

Maru sat back down.

“Feels like the club will do pretty well even without me,” Suyeon said as she walked to the blackboard.

She looked at the board relaxedly as she tapped her lips with her index finger. After scanning all of the roles, she turned around.

“You all got the roles that you wanted?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, we can always switch if things change later on. But if you end up not liking your role, you better tell me soon. I hate wasting time.”

Suyeon handed copies of script 3 to all of the club members, they were even tucked nicely in individual plastic folders. A bit different compared to Miso, who just gave the scripts to them straight as a stack of paper.

“Alright, write your name and role on the script before anything else. It helps to be able to see your role right away.”

They all wrote their names on the script under Suyeon’s instruction, Maru did the same with a pen as well. Script 3. The play was really called ‘I’ve been really wronged’, Maru smiled after scanning the script again. The story was simple, it was just a bunch of men complaining in a prison cell all day. It was somewhat philosophical, somewhat humorous, and sprinkled with a bit of social commentary. It was basically a small expression of a society contained in a little cell.

‘Businessman.’

It was the first word that struck out to Maru from the first page of the script. He liked the role, so he took it immediately. Thankfully, none of the other members wanted the role. Maru barely remembered what happened during his time in the office, but the emotions were all still there. It would surely help fuel his character.

‘It should be easy as well.’

It was easy to act out the roles you had experience in, that was the sole reason why he wanted the role. An easy role would allow him more time, the extra time that he could use to practice for the auditions.

“Alright, let’s sit in a circle.”

The club rearranged their positions and Suyeon stood in the middle of the newly-formed circle.

“We’ll do our first reading now. It’s easy. Just read. You’ve read from books in class before, right? This is the same thing. I’ll read the directives in the script, just read your lines when it’s your turn. You can put some feelings if you want or you can just read it if you want. We’re just figuring out what the play is like for now. But! Look into my eyes as you read. I know it’ll be stressful since I’m pretty, but try not to get too embarrassed.”

Suyeon smiled. She looked incredibly foxy, but she surprisingly didn’t feel annoying to look at. Was that skill? Even Dowook was too embarrassed to look directly at her. Probably because unlike most other women, every one of Suyeon’s movements exudes charm. It was almost as if she was constantly secreting pheromones from the curves of her body. Well, it was nice to see, so Maru decided he might as well enjoy it.

“Han Maru, aren’t you being a little too obvious with your gaze?”

“Well, you’re literally asking for it.”

The little banter made the club members widen their eyes. Did Jiyoon’s expression stiffen just now? Surely that was just an illusion, Maru turned to look at Suyeon with a surprised expression. The woman was winking at him playfully, she got him.

“Oh my, how bold.”

“...Let’s get back to the lecture.”

“I was just about to, Mr. pervert.”

She really couldn’t be taken lightly.

* * *

“They look really close together, right?”

Jiyoon nodded with a sad look, Suyeon and Maru looked very close to one another. Here Jiyoon was feeling the pressure just from the fact that Suyeon was a famous actress in dramas and Maru was talking with her as if he’s known the woman for years.

“Senior Maru was totally a surprise today. I thought he wouldn’t get along with women with his serious attitude, but he’s super handsome when he smiles. Though… Senior Dowook’s more handsome. Senior Daemyung’s… cute. I think it’d be fun to tease him.”

Aram giggled happily. Jiyoon wanted to laugh too, but she really just wasn’t in the mood for it.

“What the, why are you looking so tired today? You looked really energetic back in the classroom.”

“No, I...”

“Ohh, I think I might be onto something.”

“O-onto what?”

“Onto love!”

Aram put her hands on Jiyoon’s hips, Jiyoon fell down with a yelp when those hands started tickling her. When she looked up with a little sigh, she saw Aram smiling at her deviously.

“Tell me. You have someone you like, don’t you? In the acting club!”

“No!”

She ended up shouting, Jiyoon closed her mouth and stared at Aram. The girl was grinning. Oh no! Jiyoon started running, but Aram caught up in an instant. The girl approached her with malicious laughter.

“Lee Jiyoon, you better be honest with me.”

Aram approached her with her fingers curved like a claw, all Jiyoon could do was to shake her head with her hands over her mouth.

* * *

Bangjoo smiled when he saw a pair of black sneakers laying at the front door of his home.

“You’re home, sis?”

“Yeah!”

The voice came from the bathroom, on the dining table was a bunch of side dishes she bought. He put the dishes into the empty fridge and stepped into his room to change his clothes. Right then, he noticed something strange on his desk. A computer.

“Sis? Why’s there a computer here?”

“You’re in high school. About time you start needing one.”

Her voice echoed from the bathroom. Was she taking a shower? He did need a computer, so this was a pretty welcome addition to his room.

“So how much is this?”

“Around 2 million in total? Not sure.”

“2 million?”

“What, too cheap?”

“N-no.”

She was a monster indeed, one of the reasons why Bangjoo’s parents could leave him by himself with sound minds was because of his sister’s deep pockets.

“Food?”

“Make it for me!”

“It’s so late and you still haven’t eaten?”

“I starved just to eat your food.”

Bangjoo started preparing with a little sigh. His sister was very odd and scary sometimes, but she was still his precious sister.

“What about the thing you were filming?”

“Almost done. I might be here a few days, so make food for me in the meantime.”

“Just order in!”

“No!”

“......”

Bangjoo didn’t argue with his sister often, because he knew he’d lose. He exercised when he was young solely because that was the one thing he felt like he could beat her in. Though nowadays he exercised to be an action star.

To him, his sister was a comfortable monster. Nice to deal with most of the times, but when she starts doing something odd… there was no stopping her.

“I guess I’ll make food.”

He didn’t want to cause trouble for himself down the line.